A Kerry garda who was injured when the squad car he was driving on the way to the scene of a head on crash was involved in a collision has been awarded over €90,000 by the High Court.
Garda Dennis O’Mahony was in a squad car which had blue lights and sirens on and was in an emergency vehicle convoy when the accident happened outside Ardfert village, Co Kerry.
The 49-year-old garda had sued Kerry County Council claiming the fire tender at the front of the four-vehicle convoy which was overtaking a slow moving tractor moved out on the right-hand carriageway as the squad car overtook it and crashed into the side of the garda vehicle.
In evidence, Garda O’Mahony said he was obliged to steer his car into the hedgerow to the right of the road, but the garda car struck a pallet that was embedded in the ground.
The squad car bounced back onto the road and the fire tender and garda car collided for a second time, pushing the squad car back into the hedgerow again where it travelled for 58 metres before stopping.
The claims were denied and Kerry County Council, which was sued as the owner of the fire tender and the driver’s employer, contended the fire engine had to overtake the tractor and the driver had indicated and checked in his mirror.
Mr Justice Anthony Barr said the action arose "out of a somewhat unusual accident”, in that the two vehicles that were involved were both emergency services vehicles, that were responding to an emergency when the collision occurred on June 18th, 2019.
The judge said while the collision occurred on the public road, the rules of the road did not apply in the usual way to the circumstances of this accident.
Mr Justice Barr said after the emergency vehicles left Ardfert village, there was a very long and straight stretch of road and the fire tender was travelling quite slowly for an emergency situation, at about five to ten kms below the normal speeding limit.
The judge said while this was a safe maximum speed for a heavy vehicle such as the fire tender, it was not the safe speed for a garda car travelling to an emergency situation.
In those circumstances, the judge said it was reasonable for Garda O’Mahony to decide to overtake.
“While it is not normally permissible for a vehicle to attempt to overtake two slow moving vehicles in one go, I am satisfied that in an emergency situation the decision to do that could be justified as there were all on a straight stretch of road with no oncoming traffic,” the judge said.
Mr Justice Barr said he accepted the evidence of Garda O’Mahony and another garda that he had tried on a number of occasions to pass the fire tender but had not been able to do so.
When he was presented with the opportunity to pass both the fire tender and the tractor, the judge said it was not unreasonable for Garda O’Mahony to attempt to do so given that he was responding to an emergency.
The judge found that on the balance of probabilities the fire tender indicator had not been put on when the garda car commenced to overtake.
Mr Justice Barr said it was clear the fire tender driver did not see the garda car because if he had done so, he would not have proceeded into the right-hand carriageway.
He found Garda O’Mahony had suffered significant soft tissue injuries to his neck, shoulder, right wrist and hand, and he accepted he suffered a mild level of PTSD afterwards.
Awarding a total of €91,621, the judge allowed €26,493 of that for loss of earnings as the garda was out sick and then on light duties and there was a continuing loss of overtime payments and allowances.
